OXNARD — Longtime boxing promoter Bob Arum said it, but it was the type of comment that took a few seconds to process.

“I don’t know,” said Arum, when asked about the potential ceiling of Vasyl Lomachenko. “I’ve never seen a fighter as good as he is. I mean, he is the best fighter I’ve ever seen since Muhammad Ali. He’s like an absolute artist in the ring. Technically, I’ve never seen anybody do what he does in the ring.”

A bold proclamation, indeed, but not far-fetched.

Lomachenko went 395-1 as an amateur and won gold medals for his native Ukraine in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. He tied a record by winning a world title in his third pro bout.

On Saturday, he’ll try to set a record by winning his second world championship in just his seventh fight when he moves up in weight and challenges Roman “Rocky” Martinez of Puerto Rico for his super featherweight title at Madison Square Garden (on HBO).

Lomachenko trains here at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy. When he’s not training, he lives with his wife Elena and their children — 4-year-old son Anatoly and 3-year-old daughter Victoria — in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine, where Lomachenko was born and raised.

He’s a hero there.

“Most of the people recognize me in the Ukraine who are interested in sports, people who know boxing,” said Lomachenko, 28. “They’re happy, they’re cheering for me, they’re wishing me good luck.”

This means everything to Lomachenko.

“I want people around the world to know Ukraine is the land where young fellows come up and they can become a champion,” he said.

Lomachenko began his journey there at a young age at the behest of his parents. His father, Anatoly, trains him. His mother, Tatyana, is a gymnastics instructor.

“Right from when I was a little kid, my father put me into sports,” Lomachenko said. “Basically, I tried every single sport. I went to every single session of everything that was offered in my little town.

“I went to soccer, all kind of athletics, anything that was there … dancing classes, boxing. Boxing was the one I chose. Boxing was the most interesting to me and then when I was I was a teenager, I started putting everything that I could into my boxing classes.”

Considering how tremendous the southpaw Lomachenko is from a technical standpoint — his moniker is “High-Tech” — his nose-to-the-grindstone attitude has paid big dividends.

Everything, it seems, he touches turns to gold.

Even his decision to wait until after the 2012 London Games to turn pro has worked well. He could have done so after the 2008 Beijing Games. He was 20 and it would have been the perfect time, as Olympic champions are highly coveted by promoters.

Lomachenko’s response regarding that choice was, well, golden.

“I can’t right now say what is the best and what is not best,” he said through interpreter/manager Egis Klimas. “But the results of what I am doing right now, it shows itself the way I’m going right now in my professional career, and I am happy about that.

“If I would be turning pro in 2008, I would have to go through all the dead bodies to prove myself and have like maybe 15 or 20 professional bouts until I can fight somebody that’s a bigger name. I don’t think that would be interesting for me.”

What he did as one of the all-time great amateurs allowed him to get big prize-fights at the outset. He tried to win a title in his second pro bout, but lost a split-decision to then-featherweight champion Orlando Salido. Salido didn’t make weight for the fight, however, and was stripped of his belt, meaning only Lomachenko could leave the ring with it with a victory.

By the time the fight started, Salido had rehydrated to 147 pounds — a whopping 21 over the featherweight limit — and outweighed Lomachenko by 11 pounds.

Unfazed by the setback, Lomachenko next took on Gary Russell Jr. in June 2014 at StubHub Center in Carson and won a vacant title. He made three defenses before moving up for this fight against Martinez.

Even though Martinez is the champion, he speaks like the underdog, which says a lot about Lomachenko.

“I think this will be the fight that really helps me to go to another level,” Martinez said. “It is not an impossible fight for me. I think I can win this fight.”

“Rocky Martinez is a good fighter, but I’d pick Vasyl against anybody, anybody near his weight,” Arum said. “I think he’s that good.”

The “best fighter” since the late Ali, according to Arum, his promoter.

“It’s a pleasure for me that Bob Arum is saying things like that about me,” Lomachenko said. “I would love to see that become reality and I can show that if only very strong and the best opponents (are) in front of me.”

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